The album’s cover was painted by Brooklyn artist Sam McKinniss, who was initially approached by Lorde over the rest of his work. They became friends, and Lorde eventually commissioned McKinniss for the piece.

The album cover is all about her—it’s all about her album and her vision—but she caught me at a really special time for my work…we chatted a lot and I listened to some demos of some early songs, which were really great and exciting and fresh…there were some youthful, nighttime attitudes she was really chasing after and really trying to get into the songs. So what she asked me to do was to meet her [at her studio] and create a kind of colorful teenage restlessness and excitement and energy and potential—to put that into color and put it in my hands.
—McKinnis in W Magazine